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Twenty Questions, now with twice the Answers!

Welcome to the 20 Awesome Questions Annual Blog Swap Interview!
…Not that this is in any way annual, but the word casts a prestigious light on the whole thing, yes? Anyway, it does have 20 Questions, it is a Blog Swap Interview, and it had better be Awesome.

If you want to see my answers to these same questions (all the cool kids want to see my answers, fyi), hop right over to my friend Danielle’s blog (which I helped her title, incidentally), Ever On Word.

The poor writer currently under investigation… don’t spare her too much pity; she wastes no time in grilling me under the too-bright light.

1) What’s one of the first stories you remember writing?
I recall an oral tale of a man who, after numerous rebuffs from a woman who just didn’t want to marry him, declared war on her cabin with a battalion of tanks, only to learn (before any real harm was done) that the woman was already married. Boy, did he feel foolish.

2) Name a book you read that you wish you’d written.
Rick Riordan’s “The Lightning Thief”/subsequent volumes of the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. It really hooked me up with my Greek mythology fix, with a bonus of urban fantasy and humor. Also, if I’d been in charge of the franchise, I’d have made sure the movie was better.

3) Name someone else’s character you wish you’d created.
Pity I can’t claim original creation rights for Robin Hood. That would be quite the feather in my jaunty outlaw cap.

4) Name a character you wish you were.
Princess Rosalba from my “Wilderhark Tales” series. Her father’s amazing, she’s sensible, she’s gorgeous, her author almost always gives her a “happily ever after” (eventually…), and, oh yeah, I’m in love with her husband.

5) Who is your favorite side character that you wrote? (Because the main characters are always hogging the love.)
C. Peader Jock, my MC’s (literal) partner in crime in Part Two of my major revision project. He’s got a hot Scottish accent, and the casually loyal, almost protective nature of his relationship with the MC fascinates me.

6) Who is your favorite character that I wrote?
Syawn of “Ever Actor” – as I’m sure he already knows. He’s big and green-eyed, he’s a thief, his name means “fox”… that’s a rock solid list of reasons, as far as I’m concerned.

7) What were your early thoughts of me?
You were a stranger and practically a child, with a name I didn’t bother to remember because it looked odd and everyone was going by their NaNo aliases anyway. We should have been finished almost before we started, but somehow we kept talking to each other, and I quickly gained the impression that you were one cool kid. I stand by that impression to this day, except that you seem older than me, now. …minus the times you’re acting like a toddler.

8) If you had to describe Stranger Than Truth to a stranger in three sentences, how in the world would you?
It’s a club consisting of: Me; my fellow author friend, Tirzah; and a whole bunch of our fictional characters. We hang out together in a pillow fort on the plane of collaborative imagination. It’s a great place to laugh with (*cough* at) each other, cry the tears of a character going through a rough time, and keep the artistic inspiration coming.

9) You get to have a monument erected in the middle of San Francisco! Describe it!
A huge stone fountain featuring two of my heroes native to San Francisco, two water elementals, a guy with a metal arm, a girl dressed like a gladiator, and a woman in a trench coat, all in fierce action poses.

10) Who’s your favorite poet?
Modern lyricists count as poets, right? Certainly, they do. So I’ll say Heather Dale. “The Trial of Lancelot”, “Tarnished Silver”, “Kingsword”, and “Measure of a Man” are the perfect songs to have on repeat when I’m in an Arthurian mood.

11) Name some specific someone out there that you’d *really* love to love your book. (Fellow author, celebrity, friend/family member, real or fictional, living or dead…)
I’m torn between Rachel Aaron (the author of Eli Monpress) and Jennifer Lawrence (the actress who demonstrated in that one interview video we saw that she is the coolest kind of person). Well, Rachel already has some idea I exist. I still need to get Jennifer’s attention! Maybe if I figure out a character of mine she can play… Whaddaya think? Morganne le Fey or Queen Ursula?

12) What are your thoughts on realism in fantasy?
I don’t worry about it much in my writing. The way I see it, fantasy is our chance to write life better than reality, unfettered by the humdrum restrictions of the world we know. The emotions of the story should ring true, absolutely. But as for much of the rest? Leave it at the door!

13) What are your thoughts on vampire-infested chick lit?
I have no beef with vampires, and am not of the camp that insists they must be portrayed one certain way. They’re like any fantasy element: There to be manipulated to within an inch of their way-back-when origins in the name of an awesome new story.

14) What is your deep, underlying desire for why you want to be a successful author? (Not just “money/fame/etc.”, but “why-y-y money/fame/etc.”.)
Y’know that intense love a reader has for a book that just makes their hearts happy? I want to be responsible for that. I want some girl in a library holding a copy of something I wrote to her breast and caressing the gorgeous cover and praising heaven for me. I see that as among the highest callings in the world.

15) When would you consider yourself to *be* a successful author?
When I’m in that library and see my books on the shelves, worn and stamped up from having been checked out so often. When I find tons of pictures of my characters online – some professional, some amateur, all of them made because someone read my words and determined to show the world what their mind’s eye saw. When I get a gushing letter from someone who normally doesn’t write fan mail, but then they read my book, and they couldn’t not tell me how much they loved it. This is my cake; all else, merely icing.

16) If you couldn’t write fantasy, what would you write instead?
A lot of screwball humor for girls, I’m thinking. Silly shenanigans, zany dialogue, and cute boys a-plenty. I’d also set up a pen name under which to publish murder mysteries. (I’ll probably end up doing the latter anyway, one of these days.)

17) If you couldn’t be a writer at all, what would your dream job be?
Disney animator or Broadway star. Something to do with musicals, in any event.

19) Top hats or capes?
Aw-w-w, just one?! Well, if the cape comes with a hood, I’ll take that. I like lurking under hoods, and hats will tend to give me a headache, if I wear them too long.

20) “Writing” is to “Danielle” as…?
“Movement” is to “dancers”. Never mind the time, the place, or whether I’m getting any accolades for it – it’s just gonna happen. I think like a writer in that same unconscious way a ballerina just starts pointing her foot and going up on her toes and standing in fifth position. The words and the characters are just another part of reality for me. Strike that: One of the best parts.